The present invention relates to a novel and useful knit or woven fabric. More particularly, the present invention relates to a braid of raw silk, as well as a knit or woven fabric that employs such a braid and which is improved in such characteristics as warmth, moisture absorption, comfort, air permeability, wear resistance and luster.
The use of raw silk as a textile fiber predates written history. The continuous filaments unwound from cocoons are degummed and twisted together to form multifilament yarns which are then woven into a fabric form. Because of the nature of raw silk, the twisted silk yarns will project outwardly in a loop when slackened. This phenomenon is not deleterious to the purpose of making a woven fabric but in knitting operations, needles will get stuck by the loop and may break. In order to avoid the occurrence of frequent troubles on a knitting machine due to the looping of silk yarns, the machine has to be operated at a speed at least ten times slower than when it is used to knit cotton or nylon yarns. Another problem associated with the knitting silk yarns is that holes sometimes occur in the fabric to reduce the yield of acceptable products. For these principal reasons, no commercial production of knit fabrics is currently undertaken on the basis of raw silk. Further, textile fabric made from the knitting have been disadvantageous in that a surface of the fabric may have an undesirable striped pattern.